Scientist Who Developed In-Vitro Fertilization

Robert Edwards
was a feisty British embryologist who fundamentally transformed human procreation by developing in vitro fertilization.

ENLARGE

Professor Robert Edwards (left) posing for pictures with the world's first IVF baby Louise Brown, (second right) her son Cameron (right) and her mother Lesley Brown in 2008. during a celebration ahead of Louise's 30th birthday at Bourn Hall Clinic in Cambridge, England.
AFP/Getty Images

Dr. Edwards, who died Wednesday in England at age 87, was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in medicine for his discovery, which resulted in the first test-tube baby and provided the basis for genetic screening and stem cell research.

Louise Brown,
the first baby conceived via IVF, was born in England on July 25, 1978. More than four million IVF babies since have been born world-wide.

Working with gynecologist
Patrick Steptoe,
who died in 1988, Dr. Edwards overcame political and religious hostility, as well as the disapproval of many other scientists.

"By a brilliant combination of basic and applied medical research, Edwards overcame one technical hurdle after another in his persistence to discover a method that would help to alleviate infertility," the Nobel Prize committee said in its award citation.

Dr. Edwards was in failing health at the time and unable to attend the award ceremony.

ENLARGE

Professor Robert Edwards sits with two of his test-tube-babies Sophie and Jack Emery, on their second birthday in London in 1998.
AP

Raised in Manchester, England, Robert Geoffrey Edwards attended the University of Edinburgh, where he received a Ph.D. studying developmental biology in mice. In 1963, he took a position at Cambridge University, his home for the rest of his career.

More on Dr. Edwards

In 1968, Dr. Edwards teamed with Dr. Steptoe to study fertilization and develop methods that would allow the sperm and egg to survive outside the womb. The team performed key experiments with no public funding or direct research support, at a time when the concept of a test-tube baby seemed the stuff of
Aldous Huxley's
"Brave New World."

The birth of the first child who began life as an embryo outside the human body made headlines world-wide and ultimately spawned hundreds of commercial IVF clinics.

Safety fears turned out to be largely unfounded. Long-term studies have shown that IVF children usually are as healthy as other children.

Dr. Edwards never hesitated to debate the implications of his work and successfully sued some of his critics for libel.

In 1989, he recalled the pressure. "We were subjected to vast criticism and not a little personal abuse from personal colleagues and others whose most frequent cry was that we should not play God and we should not interfere with nature," he said.

The success of IVF spawned social experiments and legal conundrums. Affluent couples contracted for surrogate wombs. Sisters sometimes carried to term their sister's children and, on occasion, a grandmother gave birth to her own grandchildren. Legal disputes over the custody of frozen embryos became a staple of divorce proceedings.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Dr. Edwards received the 2001
Albert Lasker
Award for Clinical Medical Research. In 2011, he was knighted by
Queen Elizabeth
"for services to human reproductive biology."

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.